released July 31, 2020

Reviews
NIKOLAS SKORDAS / STEPHANOS CHYTIRIS - Invisible War (Slam 5101; UK) Featuring Nikolas Skordas on soprano & tenor saxes, taragato & flutes and Stephanos Chytiris on drums. This was recorded live at Shellac Studios in Greece in 2018 & 2019. Greel reeds-player, Nikolas Skordas, has two previous duo discs out with Slam founder George Haslam and UK keyboardist Alex Maguire. Greek drummer, Stephanos Chytiris is a new name for me. There are 7 tracks here, four of which have Mr. Skordas switching between his four reed instruments. On the first piece, it sounds as if Mr. Skordas is playing two flutes at the same time or perhaps panpipes with Mr. Chytiris on hand drums or perhaps mallets on toms. Skordas switches to soprano sax for three tracks and this sounds like his main axe. The piece was recorded live in the studio but the room sounds rather large and live-sounding. Skordas has strong, warm tone, staying in the middle register without any squawking. Eventually the duo take off for some intense, free-wheeling soaring, going higher and higher as the piece evolves. For the title piece, "Invisible War", the duo push hard, the soprano sax on the verge of eruption, the drums churning up a storm underneath. Mr. Skordas switches to tenor sax on "Empathy", bending and twisting the notes on his sax freely without screaming or playing too loudly. Skordas plays taragato on on "Passing", reaching even deeper into his book of free playing and churning up the intensity from within. This disc shows that "free music" can and does come from anywhere and everywhere. Haven’t heard very much free playing from Greece so perhaps this is a unique unit. Strong, focused and free. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG Newsletter 5 February 2021.





You might be tempted to believe, before placing this disc into your player, that you were about to hear solo woodwind with a drummer keeping score. I trust that before the end of the first track you will discover that what you are hearing is two solo instrumentalists playing ‘in ensemble’ – and more: this is very much improvised, free music. Employing the tárogató illustrates that part of the music rooted in folk traditions, while the saxophones expose and explore the roots in jazz and studies in acoustics, form and surface texture or bumpiness. Throughout there are some stunning transitions executed with significant passion.

Both musicians have studied their subjects thoroughly, though in differing ways. Saxophonist Skordas studied jazz soprano at the ‘Athenaeum Conservatoire’ and then classical music and harmony at the ‘Hellenic Conservatory’ in Athens and jazz instrumentation at the ‘Contemporary Conservatory’ of Thessaloniki. He is especially dedicated to exploring and working on new sounds and ideas.

Drummer Chytiris studied aural arts at the Dartington College of Arts in Devon and at the Long Island University, New York. Since then he has been concentrating on project work including recording with saxophonist Daniel Carter and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. His main interests are in avant-garde jazz, contemporary classical music and techno, while maintaining an equilibrium between modernism and tradition in drumming.

Skordas’ tárogató has a strident, aggressive tone and accompanied by the incessant rattle of the backcloth created by Chytiris’ drumming, they sound ‘made for each other’, churning patterns gyrating around each other, each one satisfying an opening left by the other. So, the two do meet, in full empathy and attentive awareness. Free, improvised music indeed.

Reviewed by Ken Cheetham www.jazzviews.net/nikolas-skordas--stephanos-chytiris---invisible-war.html



Nicolas Skordas plays a variety of flutes, the tarogato, soprano sax and tenor sax in conjunction with drummer Stephanos Chytiris for seven pieces that go from folk to free. With hand percussion by Chytiris, Skordas produces folk flute sounds on "Empnoh" and American Indian lore during "Archetype". His soprano snarls and growls on the spontaneous "Invisible War" while the two swing pretty hard on "Bones And Stones". Some folksy Middle Eastern Byzantium is evoked with Chytiris on tympany on "Passing" and the tenor sax gets as altissimo as Mt. Olympus on "Empathy". A journey to land s of the past. www.jazzweekly.com/2020/09/slam-for-septemberviola-falb-bernd-satzinger-mark-holub-a-room-for-you-breadcrumb-trio-breadcrumb-trio-haslam-madeira-rua-lopes-ajuda-stephanos-shytiris-nikolas-skordas-invisible-war/ George Harris